Abuja — In addition to the serious waves of violence that are affecting the Nigerian population, including kidnappings, clashes, terrorist attacks and brutal murders, there is poverty, food insecurity, inadequate health care and a disproportionate increase in the cost of living.
"We are suffering greatly. We have almost nothing to eat and for more than four years we have not been able to dedicate ourselves to agricolture because the bandits have driven us out of our communities. We urgently need the government's support," says a statement from residents of a refugee camp in Zamfara state, in northwest Nigeria.
In this region of the country, armed groups are driving farmers off their land, closing markets and extorting money from communities. More than 2.2 million people have been forced to flee, many of them now living in overcrowded camps without any resources. According to local press reports, the ongoing conflicts are also affecting agriculture and food production in the northeast. Families returning to their land are reluctant to farm away from militarized cities, risking starvation. Food shortages are so severe that some families are forced to eat cassava husks to survive.
In 2020, the Nigerian government launched the so-called "National Multisectoral Action Plan for Food and Nutrition", an initiative for the period 2021-2025 to combat food security and malnutrition, with a focus on increasing food production through agricultural investments. Unfortunately, so far, the funds have not been sufficient.
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Agriculture generates 24% of Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs more than 30% of the total workforce, but the funding for the sector remains well below the 10% target set by the African Union in the 2003 Maputo Declaration, which calls for at least 10% of national budgets to be allocated to agriculture and rural development within five years (see Fides, 21/9/2006).
Africa's most populous country, with around 225 million inhabitants, has one of the highest rates of childhood stunting in the world: 32% of children under five are affected.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), two million children in Nigeria, mainly in the north of the country, are affected by malnutrition, which kills around 2,400 children under five every day.
